Activate a Which-to-Choose Mindset
Product Catalog
Activate a Which-to-Choose Mindset
A single choice primes people to make more choices.
Prime customers to choose.
For example, which animal do you prefer: elephant or hippo?
In one study, people who answered this question were more likely to buy a computer (Xu & Wyer, 2008).
You can blame three stages of buying:
- Stage 1: Whether to buy
- Stage 2: Which to buy
- Stage 3: How to buy
Any choice (elephant vs. hippo) activates a “which-to-choose” mindset. Customers skip the first stage of “whether” to buy, proceeding immediately to the second stage of “which” to buy.
Stating a preference appears to induce a which-to-buy mindset, leading people to think about which of several products they would like to buy under the implicit assumption that they have already decided to buy one of them. (Xu & Wyer, 2007, p. 564)
When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
When you make a choice, everything looks choosable.
Stronger For
- Visual Choices. Humans prefer choosing from visual graphics, especially in the early stages of a decision (e.g., browsing (Townsend & Kahn, 2014)
- Townsend, C., & Kahn, B. E. (2014). The “visual preference heuristic”: The influence of visual versus verbal depiction on assortment processing, perceived variety, and choice overload. Journal of Consumer Research, 40(5), 993-1015.
- Xu, A. J., & Wyer Jr, R. S. (2007). The effect of mind-sets on consumer decision strategies. Journal of Consumer Research, 34(4), 556-566.
- Xu, A. J., & Wyer Jr, R. S. (2008). The comparative mind-set: From animal comparisons to increased purchase intentions. Psychological Science, 19(9), 859-864.
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